ABC AND THE GLOBAL WARMING DEBATE

A MORE RESPONSIBLE APPROACH NEEDED?

by Betty Luks
It is nearly sixty years since Geoffrey Dobbs wrote his book, "On Planning the Earth". The first Part was written and published in 1944, and was concerned with defending the soil against wholesale interference by remote financial and political agencies. Geoffrey insisted: "You cannot enforce good farming by laws, restrictions and penalties. Such an idea can arise only from a childish misconception of the complexity of the links between men, animals, plants, micro-organisms, and the soil."

The Second Part was written five years later, during which the Tennessee Valley with its huge hydro-electric power had produced the first Atom Bomb. He observed: "So much, then, for all that splendid and heavily financed 'ecological' jargon about grass-roots democracy and conservation which was used to 'sell ' the TVA in the I930's and has now become so innocently fashionable among the 'Greens' over the years." (Sound familiar?…ed)

He saw the development and direction of Modern Science had become so distorted there were "deep penetrations" in certain directions, which not only served the purposes of power and money, but weren't balanced in other directions, such as the environment. This imbalance resulted in many insoluble environmental problems.

Where are the bees?
Beekeepers in America and Europe are perplexed as to the disappearance of their bees. Australian beekeepers are exporting bees to America to make up for the shortfall, but I am told by folk in the field, they also are disappearing.
Could it be that what is happening to the bees in America and Europe is more the result of the effects from microwave radiation emitted by mobile phones and towers? Is it a case of the scientists not considering the long-term effects of their inventions on other forms of life, such as the bees?

What Geoffrey Dobbs wrote nearly sixty years ago bears repeating: "… Such an idea can arise only from a childish misconception of the complexity of the links between men, animals, plants, micro-organisms, and the soil."

NOT JUST THE BEES ARE IN TROUBLE

Having reported on the 'climate change mafia' does not mean we believe human beings can destroy their own environment, can 'foul up their own nests', and not suffer the consequences.
The following report from the UK could be a warning modern inventions have a serious down side not yet taken into account.
"It is being reported that sparrows began to disappear from the cities at least four years ago in Britain, as mobile phones grew in popularity. Third generation (3G) mobile phones were introduced in 2003, and there were over 65 million users in the UK by the end of 2005, more phones than people.
Scientists at the Research Institute for Nature and Forests in Brussels, Belgium, have produced the first evidence that mobile phone base stations are affecting the reproductive behaviour of wild sparrows. This finding comes as mobile phones are held suspect in the massive collapse of bee colonies all over the United States and Europe (Mobile Phones and Vanishing Bees, SiS 34).
Joris Everaert and Dirk Bauwens wanted to know if the low intensity microwave radiation from mobile phone base stations has any effect on the number of house sparrows during the breeding season. They identified 150 locations distributed over six residential districts in Gent, Sint and Niklaas in the province of East Flanders, where they counted the number of male house sparrows and measured the strength of electromagnetic radiation from base stations.

Mobile phones and transmitters:
The study areas were similar, with abundant hedges, bushes, and other vegetation between the houses, and one or more GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) base stations nearby. All locations were along small roads within the residential areas and at variable distances from the nearest GSM (mean 352 m, range 91-903 m, about 90 percent at 100-600 m).

On days when the weather was favourable, so male sparrows would be out singing, the researchers went to each location between 7 and 11 am, and using binoculars, counted the number of male sparrows within a radius of about 30 m for a period of five minutes. Simultaneously, they measured the maximum value of the electric field strength (in V/m) from the GSM 900 MHz and GSM 1800 MHz base station antennas during 2 minutes for each frequency band, using a portable calibrated high-frequency spectrum analyser. Everaert and Bauwens found that the number of house sparrow males varied between zero and four at the different locations. The measured electric field strengths were seldom higher than 1V/m, and most often well below that value.

Nevertheless, the spatial variation in the number of house sparrow males was negatively and highly significantly correlated to the strength of electric fields from both the 900 and 1800 MHz frequency bands and from the sum of these bands. This negative correlation was very similar within each of the six districts, despite differences in both the number of birds and radiation levels.

High electric-field strengths:
Fewer house sparrow males were seen at locations within relatively high electric field strengths of GSM base stations. For example, the mean number of male sparrows varied from 1.9 at the combined field intensity of 0.13 V/m to 0.8 at a combined field intensity of 0.247 V/m.
The results, though preliminary, do support the hypothesis that long-term exposure to higher levels of radiation negatively affects the abundance or behaviour of house sparrows in the wild. Fewer males singing would mean less breeding success.

White storks breeding success plummets near mobile phone transmitters:
Sparrows are not the only wild birds affected. Phone masts were found to actually reduce the breeding success of white storks in Spain. Alfonso Balmori, a conservation biologist in Valladolid, Spain, reported a significantly lower number of white stork (Ciconia ciconia) fledglings in nests close to mobile phone transmitters compared to nests further away.

To monitor the breeding success of the white stork population, 60 nests were selected and visited from May to June of 2003. The selected nests had similar characteristics. They were located on the roof of churches and buildings inside urban centres in Valladolid. As the cell phone transmitters are everywhere, very few places had zero background intensity. So nests were chosen that were exposed at very high or very low levels of EMR, depending on the distance from the nests to the antennas."

Source: https://www.i-sis.org.uk/MPVB.php

CREEPING REPUBLICANISM

from David Flint's Opinion Column:
Understandably offended by the removal of the Crown from the badge of the AIF in a TV news broadcast, Mr. David Caldwell, one of our (ACM's) readers, sent the following letter to Channel 7 and to the RSL:

"Dear Sir/ Madam,
I noticed on the news broadcast in Sydney tonight (23 April 2007) that the badge of the Army-- or the Australian Imperial Force at the time of the ANZACs-- had been manipulated. The Crown at the centre of the badge had been removed and replaced with an "A". This manipulated badge was employed both in the headline and in subsequent captions. I find it very offensive that ATN 7 thinks it appropriate to modify that badge.
Several of my forbears, in the 1st and 2nd World Wars, served Australian forces in the service of the Crown. I need not remind you that ANZAC stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, being Corps of the Imperial Forces. Those of my forbears who fought (and several died) for the common principles of the Empire, as you will find inscribed on many memorials, fought "For King and Empire". I know that much of the media has continued to pursue a republican agenda, and to this end has sought to manipulate history and our national symbols to purge them of our institutional and cultural heritage. Usually it is just annoying, but in this instance it is outright offensive that so direct and glaring manipulation be made.
It seems absolutely bizarre to me that Channel 7 thinks it appropriate to remove the central symbol of the Army badge and replace it with an "A".
After ATN 7's recent misjudgements relating to a pre-dawn service, I would have thought there would be a greater degree of caution over manipulating the symbols of our national and institutional heritage. Please, when employing the army badge in news coverage (appropriately enough for ANZAC day coverage), do not modify it or play on it to satisfy personal or commercial agendas.

Yours sincerely, David Caldwell."

David Flint comments:
Mr. Caldwell has informed us that in subsequent programmes on Channel 7, the badge was presented faithfully without modification. It is of course unacceptable that even on one occasion the media should do this. During the referendum campaign, one newspaper had a daily column presenting the views of various people in the debate.
It came out under the title " Crown or Country", with drawings of a Crown, and by way of contrast, an Australian soldier's slouch hat. A major television network regularly filmed people in different locations putting voting balls into plastic containers similarly marked.
The implication in each case was clear - patriotic Australians could only vote for the republic. But research undertaken by the ANU after the referendum concluded that those who voted "No" were more patriotic than those who voted "Yes."

THE TSUNAMI-WAVE NUMBERS TO DELUGE US

It is not just the League of Rights warning Australians of the immigrant-tsunami washing over our land. Michael Pascoe in crikey.com.au 17/5/07 writes:

300,000 migrants next year -- but keep it to yourself.
"We'll decide who comes to Australia -- lots and lots of people in ever-increasing record numbers," John Howard didn't say yesterday amidst all the reporting on wages inflation remaining tame… But the big elephant in the living room is the record and rising supply of labour from overseas.

John Howard won't be campaigning as Australia's greatest champion of immigration and multiculturalism despite overseeing the importation of nearly 300,000 people in the 2006-07 financial year. Such irony.
Instead, the Government is downplaying migration numbers. Minister Kevin Andrew's Budget media release announced an increase of 5000 in the skilled migrant category to give a migration program total of 152,800. Overlooked in that release was the 13,000-strong humanitarian migration category. Along with another few hundred in the "special eligibility" category, the total is about 166,000.

The big wheeze though is excluding our 'guest workers' from the total.
In the nine months to the end of March, we took in 34,170 guest workers on four-year 457visas plus another 30,290 dependents (very many of whom also work). If that rate is maintained in the June quarter, the total for the year will be 85,548 -- up from 71,150 last financial year. Anecdotally, there's certainly no slowing in the growth of 457s, which would mean we should crack the 100,000 next year. (Indeed, some semi-skilled categories are edging into the system, such as aged-care workers and truck drivers.)
Also not counted as part of the official migration figures are citizens of New Zealand. In the last financial year, 23,781 of them settled here. Let's assume the stronger Australian economy continues to attract them at that rate and round the number to 24,000. That gives a total of 290,000 newcomers.

But wait, there's probably more.
Also tucked away in the Budget was a new visa category for foreign students who have completed professional training here. It will allow them to work for 18 months while they gain professional experience in their field of study and improve their English.
It's considered a "transitional" visa -- neither temporary or permanent -- but looks like being given to many who previously would have gone straight for the "skilled migration" permanent category. Could there be 10,000 of them? I don't know -- but it would round out the numbers to a neat 300K.
And the really neat thing is that cherry-picking such large numbers of mainly young, skilled, well-educated migrants allows us to circumvent the problems of our demographics and our own lack of investment in education. Nice work, Johnny -- but I suspect you won't make an issue of it."